1748 - Printed for the Author, London - First Edition

A finely bound ‘Royal Paper’ copy of the this beautifully illustrated work which ‘has long occupied a distinguished position as a masterpiece of descriptive travel’ (Hill), and ‘a model of what such literature should be’ (Cox).

Containing forty two copper-engraved maps, charts, views, and coastal profiles, all but one folding, including views of Brazilian harbours and cities, Acapulco, Tenian, Port St. Julian, Magellan’s Straits, the Bay of Manila, Saipan, Lama, Lantau, Chinese Junks, and others, and large folding maps of South America, the Philippines, and the Pacific Ocean, as well as the twelve page subscriber list, and the two page instructions to the binder.

England, at war with Spain in 1739, equipped eight ships under the command of George Anson to harass the Spaniards on the western coast of South America, for the purpose of cutting off Spanish supplies of wealth from the Pacific area. Seven ships were lost and out of 900 men, 600 perished. As usual scurvy took an appalling toll.

The Spanish fleet sent out to oppose the British ran into storms; provisions ran out and many ships were wrecked. Thus the primary object of the expedition was not attained, however Anson continued taking prizes off the Pacific coast during 1741-42, and in June 1743, near the Philippines he captured the Spanish galleon Nostra Seigniora de Cabadonga and its treasure of £400,000 sterling, which allowed Anson and the surviving members of his crew to reach England much the richer. More details

Price HK$ 59,000

1869 - Tinsley Brothers, London - First Edition

A handsome two volume set of Sir Richard Francis Burton’s account of his journey through the central highlands of Brazil, both volumes with engraved frontispiece plates, and volume two with a folding map of Brazil.

Appointed British consul in Santos in 1865, Burton sailed to Rio de Janeiro before travelling inland and along the Sao Francisco river by raft. Eighteen months later, Burton set out for Minas Gerais to survey its mineral wealth. Lady Isabel Burton later supervised the publication, and contributed a revealing preface expressing her personal feelings regarding her husband’s views on religion and polygamy, requesting that the ‘fair or gentle reader’ bear in mind that her husband was writing ‘from a high moral pedestal’. More details

Price HK$ 18,000

1856 - Harper & Brothers, New York - First Edition

Thoroughly illustrated throughout with over 100 woodcut. Ewbank in his own words ‘noted whatever interested me, and that, in sooth, was nearly every thing: arts, manners, customs, buildings, trades, tools, pottery, food, salves, animals, agricultural products, climate, diseases, population, antiquities, &c., &c.; hence this volume will be found a miscellanea of tropical life.’

Ewbank was an English born inventor and manufacturer, later to become the U.S. Commissioner of Patents. Prior to becoming Commissioner, he travelled through Brazil, and was ‘interested in geography, mechanic, arts, and the people he saw, all of which he wrote about charmingly and illustrated scrupulously."(DAB). These writings are still used as an important source today, including his reports on the slave trade, of which he was vocally anti. More details